Altered immune response to glycine-rich sequences of epstein-barr nuclear antigen-1 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

✍ Scribed by Jorgen Petersen; Gary Rhodes; Jean Roudier; John H. Vaughan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 564 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780330711

✦ Synopsis

Prior studies have shown that patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased number of circulating Epstein-Barr virus-infected B lymphocytes and elevated titers of antibody to Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen4 (EBNA-I), the major nuclear antigen ex- pressed in latently infected B cells. However, it is not known whether antibodies from RA patients recognize the same epitopes as antibodies from normal subjects. Most of the anti-EBNA-1 antibodies in normal subjects are directed at the glycine-alanine repeating region of the molecule. Antibodies specific for this region are also somewhat more prevalent in RA patients than in normal subjects. A panel of synthetic peptides derived from EBNA-1 was used to analyze the immune response to antigenic epitopes outside the glycine-alanine region, using the peptides as solid-phase antigen. Sera from RA patients and from systemic lupus erythematosus patients contained elevated levels of IgG antibodies to 2 nonglycine-alanine peptides and to 3 non-glycine-alanine peptides, respectively. T w o of the 3 peptides are glycinerich, but antibodies that react with them are distinct from each other, as well as from those that react with Publication number 5474-BCR from the Research Institute of Scnpps Clinic.